In the end, jury verdict not needed

Most civil lawsuits are settled pre-trial, but the end to a major Oconee County case occurred Friday night practically simultaneous with the jury’s verdict. In the case alleging medical malpractice by a nursing home near Seneca, the verdict was never announced. Instead, at 7:30, plaintiff’s lawyer Gary Poliakoff walked into the courtroom holding a one-page written statement and announcing, “We have a settlement.” Moments later Judge Cordell Maddox declared a settlement “prior to verdict.” Poliakoff read into the record an agreement between the parties that outlined a confidential financial settlement and how the compensation is to be paid, including penalties for late payments. Maddox said 25% of what’s paid is to be apportioned for the wrongful death claim, the remaining 75% for the survival action claim. The trial, one of Oconee’s longest, ran three weeks and paired Russell Reynolds III of Walhalla against SSC, the Seneca operating company of Seneca Health and Rehabilitation, along with two associated entities. Reynolds is the son of the late Dorothy Reynolds, a resident of the nursing facility during 2010. She died in the first month of the following year, at the age of 88. The jury heard testimony that Reynolds had cancer as well as the signs of dementia of the Alzheimer’s variety. But the lawsuit, filed on behalf of the son, alleged the woman developed body sores and became malnourished while at the facility. It claimed this happened at a time when the facility was under-staffed yet earned enough money to award top management with bonuses.